Extraction (2015)

As an action-thriller with the neo-dark flair it's just fine. I never expected 'Jason Bourne' levels of plots and conspiracies, so the movie is easy to follow. Phair lady Gina Carano deserved more screen-time, she was sort of a wasted talent in this and was proll'y not supposed to upstage Kellan Lutz who did a good job overall - he's believable as a tough guy. Bruce Willis has very limited screen time - an aging movie tough guy passing the torch.For me, it works.I'd simply ignore some of the "reviews" on this site. Not the low ratings, which are alright... Unsubstantiated trash-talk however, carries zero weight.Maybe some of the main criticism stems from people expecting to watch Willis in an alternate 'Die Hard' lead role. This one is technically a 5.5-6.0/10 for me, but a 7.0 to counter a lower than deserved rating is fair.

I have found that a typical formula for successful (i.e. decent to good) action movies involve adding one part mega action star and one part juicy action story involving espionage or military engagement or something similar. "How can it go wrong?" is my thinking. "A mega action star would never agree to this movie if the story is bad." Well, this movie proves my formula is not exactly foolproof. I settled in to watch "Extraction" knowing only that it featured Bruce Willis and possibly that it involved the CIA. By the end of the movie, it's fair to say that this isn't really a Bruce Willis movie at all since he plays second fiddle to actor Kellan Lutz, who plays a character named Harry Turner. Now if someone asked me, "Do you want to watch a Kellan Lutz movie about the CIA?", I might say, "I don't know...it might not be good if a familiar actor isn't the lead." Having watched this movie, my words would be justified. A fundamental clue that it would be poor was in the editing. The producers decided to adopt the kind of accelerated-timeline editing approach which is the death knell for action films. I don't know the motivation for this approach, but it really needs to stop. Nothing says "STOP SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF" as does the speeding up of events to cram as much action as possible into a very small window of time. It makes a story much less believable, it saps characters of development, it can be hard to follow for viewers, and it makes it a challenge for the viewer to care about what is going on. In addition to the editing, the story line itself was rather horrid. The use of cliches has already been commented on, but beyond that it was just boring and lacked credibility. Would a desk-level CIA employee really decide to crack the heads of four other agents because he couldn't go on a rescue mission to help his father? Is one agent still working for the CIA going to feed secret information to that now-rogue CIA employee? I guess they don't really care about job security there. Was there a reason that part of the story takes place in Prague when we only get to see office shots? The list goes on.All of this was aggravated by the ridiculous acting performances we see here. Bruce Willis, should be ashamed of himself. D.B. Sweeney has seen better days. I actually did not mind the performance of Kellan Lutz, but the real sore thumb was the acting of Gina Carano. Before watching "Extraction", I did not know who she was, but she looked vaguely familiar. I eventually realized that her performance was so wooden that she must have received her starring role for some reason other than her acting chops (I suspected she was a singer trying for a move to the movies, but it turns out she's an MMA fighter trying to get into acting). If you don't know what I mean, simply contrast her performance with the animated performance of the actress who played her roommate. Even if you think the roommate's performance was nothing special, it was still noticeably better than Carano's. Overall, there was too much dragging this movie down. A few positives might be found, but not enough to make this movie anything but one to skip.

Typical CIA tough guy dad and wannabe "never going to happen" son. Kellan should have been called Kelly, coz I found the chicks in the movie had more muscle power.Kellan shows us that he is definitely not fit to be a field CIA agent and is better off behind a desk pushing paper. He gets beat up all over the place. The Asian dude had his number for sure. Luckily the Asian guy was in the movie for a short scene. If it were real life Kellan would have his butt in a sling right then. The women seemed more hero types displaying action worth with they guns, cars and hands. Kellan was more like the little butterfly that needed to be saved every now and then. If I were him, I'd send the script back and pick unemployment. Of course, he needed the money and probably a chance to showcase talent. But the movie was a talent killer. Maybe he should try ballroom dance.Its OK if you want to watch an action fight movie when you got nothing else to kill time. Beyond that, it just seemed poorly plotted and one for the forgettable files.

This is not a great film, you'll be very glad for the few moments when you can relax to any minute of passable film-making. The dialogue is hammy with lots of over-exposition. The plot is just sloppy. Some of the story is based on the ignored professionalism of the lead, which he then proceeds to demonstrate none of. And everyone has guns but punches their way everywhere. Strangely tho, the end does have a decent twist. Sadly not enough by a long shot to save it.Unfortunately the lead is without charisma which colours all his interactions, and gives zero chemistry to the relationships. While Carano still might be finding her acting feet, I think she has a real screen presence, but it is horribly wasted here. Willis essentially makes a cameo, and while he sleepwalks thru it, is dependable. Generally the supporting cast are embarrassing except for a really good performance by Lydia Hull (even if the direction left the tone misplaced).